Children’s Cancer Institute shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Sam was a very active and social 12-year-old when he began experiencing frequent headaches. As a normally social and outgoing kid, his parents knew something was wrong when he didn’t want to leave the house.
One night on a family outing, Sam said ‘You have to take me home, my head is going to explode. I’m in so much pain.’
An MRI revealed that Sam had a brain tumour in the midbrain, which could not be surgically removed. However, he went into surgery the very next day to biopsy the tumour and to relieve pressure on his brain.
While mum Katie describes the wait for results as ‘horrific’, she was relieved to see Sam recover quickly, with the headaches and nausea disappearing almost straight away.
‘He was admitted on Monday and had brain surgery on Tuesday. He was in Intensive Care on Wednesday and discharged on Thursday. His recovery was amazing – he was so determined to get well and get out of hospital so he wouldn’t miss his year 6 graduation celebrations.’
Just four days after returning home from the hospital, he was back at school.
Sam was enrolled in the Zero Childhood Cancer Program (ZERO), and his samples were sent for genomic analysis. The results showed his tumour had the BRAF mutation, which meant it was likely to be fast-growing.
His oncologist, Professor Ziegler, recommended he start on targeted therapy straight away to target the BRAF mutation and try to stop the tumour’s growth. The targeted therapy also aimed to avoid chemotherapy, which would have taken a much greater toll on Sam’s body.
Four months after starting this treatment, a follow-up MRI showed that the tumour had completely stopped growing.
Today, Sam is in high school and continuing his treatment and has quarterly tests and scans.
Katie says:
‘He’s in a good place without any side effects. He could be on chemo now, so we’re thankful the targeted therapy seems to be working. Had it not been for ZERO, we wouldn’t know that this treatment was available for Sam. We would have just gone straight to chemotherapy. I just feel so grateful that someone has done the work and that we’re able to benefit from all of this amazing research.’
This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, please donate to support this vital research.”
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